A few minutes ago I started to type up a post about being a realization I'd just had about being burned out on open world games. I got about three sentences in and had the strangest deja-vu. I realized that I'd written something like it before. Sure enough, I did. In fact, I posted it one year ago tomorrow. And the stuff I was going on about was almost word-for-word what I wanted to say today. The worst part is that I've wasted hours banging my head against the wall trying to figure out what was going on before having this 'realization' that I had a year ago!

Not only did I have the same 'breakthrough' a year ago, it was right after playing Subnautica and hitting a wall in Pillars of Eternity. Good thing nobody has hired an assassin to chase me down. I'm really, really predictable.

Anyway, I'm more burned out on unfocused open world games than ever before. I just need to remember it for next time!

Fair warning: This is one of those times where I'm going to ramble just to get my thoughts out and clarify some things for myself.

I've spent the last hour or so reading up on something that last post made me think of, and I think I know part of what's going on in my gaming brain right now. There are multiple articles and discussions of it out there, and there is even a term that's being used: open world fatigue, and it seems to be something a lot of people are experiencing.

Looking back over just the past few years, I've finished Fallout 4, GTA V, Far Cry 3, Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, Far Cry 4, Far Cry: Primal, Fallout 3, Just Cause 2, Dragon's Dogma, Ni No Kuni, Batman: Arkham City, Mass Effect 3, and probably a number of others. I've also played any number of quasi-open-world games that have similar elements - Dragon Age: Inquisition comes to mind as an example.

Now look at what I've played and either gotten burned out on or abandoned. World of Warcraft, Skyrim, Witcher 3, Final Fantasy XV, Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Brutal Legend, Assassin's Creed: Black Flag, Just Cause 3, Arkham Origins, Kingdoms of Amalur

Here's the thing,though. Only Fallout 4, GTA V, and Far Cry: Primal from the finished list were in the past year and a half or so, while, with the exception of Amalur, every one of the abandoned games was. I'm picking up and dropping games like mad, and only now do I realize that the common thread is that they're open world games.

I love open world games. I have since they were young. The time I spent with Morrowind isn't exactly a secret. The thing then, though, was that they stood out. They were a new experience. Even later, in the Oblivon-Skyrim era, they were something different from the norm. Lately, though, they're everywhere. It is hard to find a major release that isn't open world. I've played so many of them for so long that I'm burned out on their mechanics. I start a game, I see cool gear, beautiful graphics, and intersting NPCs. I see a setting I want to enjoy, and get enthusiastic for the story that's beginning to unfold in front of me. Then the world unlocks, and I open my map to see hundreds of things to collect, towns to liberate, and areas to search, and I just freeze. I can't make myself do it. I have no desire to unlock yet another zone on another map.

I am tired of quest lists with dozens of items which, when I get back to doing, I have lost all story and context.
I am tired of searching for collectibles to advance my character.
I am tired of talking to everybody in a 100-person town.
I am tired of searching the countryside for the one rare herb that will let me get better gear, all while fighting off random enemies that aren't there for any real reason except to add combat.
I am tired of activating a tower to unlock points of interest nearby (can we come up with something new already?)
I am tired of backtracking for twenty minutes.
I am tired of completely losing track of the story due the sheer number of things I'm bombarded with.
I am tired of having the really cool moments of momentous storytelling and astounding enemies spread out thin with content designed to pad.
I am tired of games being unbalanced if you haven't done roughly the amount of side content the developers have assumed you'd do (this usually results in me being seriously overpowered.)
I am tired of narrative progression being interrupted with mandatory peripheral activities.
I am tired of the level of commitment these games require, scores or hundreds of hours, often after I'm ready to finish it up and move on.

It isn't that I hate the things that are in open world games. I don't. It is that I've done it so, so many times lately that it no longer has any appeal. I need more variety in my experiences. Early open world games were a change of pace from the linear games that were the rule. Now it's the other way around - open world games are the rule, and it's hard to find shooters, action games, or RPGs that aren't open world.

There are reasons for that. Open world games have been selling better for quite a while. More than that, though, it is easier to monetize open world and multiplayer games. They're just a more profitable model. I'm just reaching a point where I can't play them anymore.

Hell, I'm pretty sure the 'to do list' mentality is even causing some burnout in other genres for me. I'm trying to play Pillars of Eternity, and I'm hitting a similar overload paralysis now that I've gotten several NPCs and need to figure out how to build them. I want to go have fun, not spend an afternoon doing research and taking notes! I'm also trying to play Dishonored, and am being told that in order to build my character I have to search for piles of hidden collectibles in huge levels, and I just can't make myself want to!

I think, for the time being, I may figure out the linear games on my list and dig up some old classics and try to see if I can reset the part of my brain that's causing problems here.

Playing Crysis 2... Got stuck on a mission. Basically, the scientist told me to wipe his PC, and I just fought my way into the lab, fought off all the various rappelling goons and whatnot, and even killed the chopper without using a rocket. Then I fought my way out of the lab, crossed that broken boom, went to a door... It won't open despite busting the lock, and several power kicks. According to the notes, I had to go back to find a rocket launcher.

Except I can't get back in. You can't jump back up the floor exit, and I can't find any other way to get back in. So now... I am STUCK.

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Trying both Sebastian Loeb Rally EVO and Dirt 4. Both are actually pretty good, but I think SLREVO is a bit twitching in handling, while Dirt 4 is a bit more stable.

Post-Apocalyptic Morrowind? Out of any of their past games, I think Morrowind is the game that deserves to be remade. It's sad to see that they don't want to make the effort due to the assets being so old. But that's kind of the point in a remake, in that you reimagine it using the new technology available so that a new generation can enjoy the older game. Remastering Fallout 3 or New Vegas is kind of pointless. A remake of Morrowind would also at this point bring it to a wider audience on more consoles, seeing as it was originally only on the PC and original XBox, which sounds like a win/win to me.

Last edited by Rumpy on Sun Feb 24, 2019 3:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I regret to admit that I never got into Morrowind. I tried a couple of times, but barely made it out of the starting area. But the later games have so many books that reference the events in Morrowind that I'd really like to play it all the way through. I am eagerly waiting for them to finish the Skywind project.

The thing is, there are many of these projects in the works, but they seem to be perpetually worked on, and personally I don't think any of them will ever see the light of day. One project has been in the works for 17 years. 17! And the game is only getting older. I think they'll end up getting burned out before anything gets released.

The sad thing is, Todd Howard is against remasters in general and that they only remastered Skyrim because it was already visually close. But that to me sounds like a backwards way of thinking.

Oh, but he's happy that Morrowind is backwards-compatible on the XBox One, but that still doesn't address the issue that it's an aged game still only available on that one console. Sometimes games get remade not so much because it's a graphical issue, but because of technical limitations. It's a janky game that I feel could use a bit of new polish including new AI, UI and general improvements. At the same time, I'd say it's those same limitations that prevent the game from going out to a wider audience, and so I feel Todd Howard's comments are shortsighted.

So, if Bethesda is not going to do it, then my hope is for them to give their support to these teams where and when they need them so that they can finally release these things.

Took me 3 goes at Morrowind to fall in love. The first two ended early. Then one day a 3rd go struck a cord with me. I had modded it a bit...signposts, rippling water(looked like liquid mercury lol) and some other. I loved it. Finished it and all the DLC for it. I never saw myself returning to Morrowind. It was perfect as is. I bought Oblivion thinking it would be more fun like Morrowind but never got into it. Tried a couple times. Never got far. Then Skyrim hit. Me and my wife were at Gamestop at the mall 11/11/11 to but the collectors. I love Skyrim. Ive tried 4 or more times but not came close to the end. I did get over half way once Im pretty sure.

Now I play Apex and thats it. Not sure when Ill be more my old self again. Dont see it ever happening.

I have Morrowwind somewhere in my collection, but I don't really play much fantasy games.

Playing through "Enemy Front", a Crytek3 engine game set in WW2. It's quick action, where you as an American reporter who participate in the stories, he gets around first fighting in the Polish resistance, and also joined the Norwegian mission to destroy the heavy water plant and destroy the ferry. As it is a Crytek game, it's beautiful, and action is fast, if you want to kill plenty of Nazis. The part I really hate is they keep taking away your weapons and give you back the default, which you probably do NOT want.

Enemy Front has a very cool loading screen where the camera zooms through a static 3D scene of a moment in the game (or could be).

Its cousin is "Alien Rage", sorta the same game, albeit in Scifi setting. It's also much harder as enemies use grenade throwers and there are stealth soldiers ready to slice and dice you up close. OTOH, 1080p hadn't looked any better. You can pick different perks once you achieved certain milestones. And those perks can make a difference. But I don't play in the style that is conducive to kill streaks and such, thus my chance to high score is limited.

We came up with Fair Price Package (FPP) as a way to make up the price difference between various countries. Some games on GOG.COM have regional pricing, meaning the price of the same game in one place can be higher compared to its price in North America. In countries where the game is more expensive, we give users the equivalent of the price difference in GOG Wallet funds. In actual numbers, on average, we give users back 12% of the game price from our own pocket. In some cases, this number can reach as high as 37%.

In the past, we were able to cover these extra costs from our cut and still turn a small profit. Unfortunately, this is not the case anymore. With an increasing share paid to developers, our cut gets smaller. However, we look at it, at the end of the day we are a store and need to make sure we sell games without a loss.

Funny (and true) story. Back in the mid-1980 I was an engineering supervisor. I wrote up a pretty clever (if I do say so myself) award recommendation for one of my guys and he was selected. As usual for this situations, the chief engineer came out to our group meeting to present the award in person and as usual, he hadn't pre-read the award write-up. So as he is reading my award recommendation he reaches that word. You have to understand that while he was our chief engineer and before this a biggie engineer in NASA, he was from northern Alabama and, well, sometimes it showed. He stuttered a moment and then said "en...en...u...i". I quietly pronounced the word from behind him, but he was noticeably cool to me for a while after that.

"A plan is a list of things that go wrong. I like to keep my lists short. Just be ready." - Rico Rodriguez

Not sure where I first picked up that word. Not until I was an adult anyway. Which is somewhat unusual since most of my vocabulary was in place by the time I left high school. I was recently listening to my daughter read from her current favourite manga and was confused when I saw a word I didn't recognize. I had to look it up before I could explain it to my daughter. That it came from a comic book with barely 100 words in total was a moment of shock and amazement. In a good way, though.

Presentiment - an intuitive feeling about the future, especially one of foreboding

"Finished" Enemy Front. As a WW2 shooter it is actually pretty decent. It borrowed some mechanics from other games, as it's pretty obvious it's done by almost the same team that did Sniper Ghost Warrior... the sniper sequence is the same and looks the same. And since it's Polish, there are a lot of Polish weapons that I've never seen in other WW2 games. Crytek engine is great, and environment is good. I am not good at exploring and finding "secrets" though.

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Also "finished" Alien Rage, had to use a trainer as the game gets ridiculously hard near the end, even on the easiest level. It is pretty though. And a bit fast and furious, but ammo expenditure is ridiculous.

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Playing Dirt 4. I like how they handled the career vs. team. Creating a team and keeping it running is HARD, as you have to hit a lot of sponsors and winning and all that. Right now I'm just buying used cars (2 so far) and entering the low-level races. I got my "R3" license. I'd imagine if I don't have my own team I'd be driving as a driver for some other team but doing the same events. I've turned Ai pretty far down, as I'm not that competitive without a wheel. I kinda forgot the Evo X I got is a JDM which mean the driver's on the right. As I usually drive in cockpit view, this can be rather problematic for me. Hahaha, as my first car in the game was a left-hander (an Opel / Fiat, I believe). And I think I'll have to spend another 100K to buy a Group A car before it's over, as the Evo X is an NR4 spec car. I could have bought a group A car, but there are no affordable ones (they're 80K or 120K, the Evo X was 40K). I have to win a few more rallies first.

Still playing Dirt 4. I got like 3rd place in one of the rallies. Still won the overall championship from points, but getting third place in a Group A car... I know I didn't upgrade it but I didn't know it'd be THAT un-competitive without upgraded parts. In the NR4 events I can beat the competition by about 4-10 seconds each stage. In the Group A events I was LOSING by that margin. My Group A car, a Mitsubishi Evo VI, has maybe 3-4 grade C parts among the grade D parts. I did saw another group A car, with more "C" grade parts (roughly half?) but that car costs 140K, way more credits than I can afford.

Getting sponsors to cough up money is also difficult. You want to get a better time, so you want to push the stage, max attack, but if you do that, you probably will not be able to get a "clean" stage which can be one of the bonus targets.

Any way, won that event, and got rewarded a Subaru WRX Rally which means my garage is full. I guess I can SELL one of my cars to make room, if I need to.

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Decided to do a bit of Truck Mechanic. I'm on repair order 36 now, apparently I get to rebuild the whole engine. Hahaha. Something about the engine won't start despite putting a lot of parts in it already. The previous job was the guy wrecked his front suspension by driving into some sort of a hole (I guess it's flooded or something?) Any way, ended up replacing BOTH front leaf springs. The previous job was even worse... The guy claimed he hit the curb (kerb for Europeans) and I ended up replacing the entire left wheel assembly (wheel, hub, brake drum, etc.)

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Went back to Dirt 4 and finished the Welsh Rally as a driver, not a team owner. Drove a Mitsubishi Star R5. Welsh country side is tight as **** and even in my tiny little car I think I rolled the car several times and ended up using 3 restarts. But I think I can turn up the difficulty bar a bit further (as I don't need 10 restarts) though I am still using "gamer" handling instead of simulation handling. I'm up to reputation level 14 and I guess that's pretty decent. One more rally, and I'll be done with R3 license events.

Seems to have lost internet access at home. It is a local problem. I was able to finish the R3 events, and able to also do the cross Kart event in land rush. Those carts are way too tail loose. Also managed to finish one rally R2 in the winter. Snow driving is tough.

Yeah I have nothing calling to me, which is how I ended up spending so much time with The Division 2 despite all that progress going away in a couple weeks. My son is back into Fortnite PvE and I have played some of that with him, but I am not exactly excited about it. I've put a bunch of time into Final Fantasy XV because I have nothing else to do, I am so very much not interested by it, but I have to do something. Not bored enough to play RDR2 though.

Only that I find it incredibly slow and boring. Maybe now I know why I never finished the original. I can faintly see why people love it, but it does very little for me.

Oh ok. I thought it was supposed to be a great game. Had not heard bad on it other than some thought ti was slow. My wife was going to buy it for me in Jan. That was all planned before her stroke and passing . I may one day try it. No idea when. All Im doing is some Apex and Division 2. I think I do them because I never did when she was alive and they are with other people online....even if we are killing each other or in our own instance. I wish I could try Division 2 with OO players to see what teaming up is like. But the demo ends tonight so I dont see it happening.

Playing "911 Operator". Basically "spinning plate" game where you have to send your limited resources after the various disasters and callouts, from fires to terrorists, from childbirth to "I sawed my leg off". AND you have to stay professional "on the phone" (pre-scripted, but still funny) even if the calls are pranks, buttdial, kid calling 911 for math problems, and so on.

Only that I find it incredibly slow and boring. Maybe now I know why I never finished the original. I can faintly see why people love it, but it does very little for me.

Oh ok. I thought it was supposed to be a great game. Had not heard bad on it other than some thought ti was slow. My wife was going to buy it for me in Jan. That was all planned before her stroke and passing . I may one day try it. No idea when. All Im doing is some Apex and Division 2. I think I do them because I never did when she was alive and they are with other people online....even if we are killing each other or in our own instance. I wish I could try Division 2 with OO players to see what teaming up is like. But the demo ends tonight so I dont see it happening.

From what I've read it isn't that it's bad, but that it is absolutely choked with busy work. I just saw this the other day.

Back to Dirt 4... Tried to race KrossKart (tiny buggies) and those things are so-tail happy you can do donuts all day, but that makes them VERY difficult to race as you end up swapping ends if you accelerate at the wrong time. Actually won, but have to use my restarts. Strangely, I have no such problem with buggies or stadium trucks. That was a hard-earned victory.

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Trying to get a few sessions of "Frontier Pilot Simulator" in. Man, this game is hard. It doesn't warn you that you're overloading your aircraft. If you load too much **** and can't maintain altitude, that's YOUR problem. And your initial craft, the Scarab, is a light craft that can't even load 5 tons and hover. It can only do so in ground effect. And that means quite a bit of the existing cargo is useless to you, as you have to go between landing pads and that requires actual flying. And you need a LOT more money to upgrade to a more powerful craft with bigger engines.

From what I've read it isn't that it's bad, but that it is absolutely choked with busy work. I just saw this the other day.

That article reads very cynically from someone who's used to games being much faster-paced. He makes a comparison with Fortnite, which tells me all I need to know; He's used to instant gratification. But that's not the way it works in this game. It's a game that requires patience. Those that stick with it are rewarded with some of the best character development Rockstar's done to date. Even all the side characters in the gang have distinct personalities. It's my favourite Rockstar game to date.

So my wife just emailed me in a lather about a game she found out about on Steam. I won't name it to avoid giving it a search history here, but the developer proudly claims his game is for the small percentage of sociopaths in the world, and lets players embark on a grotesque mission to torture and rape women, and engage in incest and necrophilia. The first word in the game's name drops the "G" from "Grape" and the last word puts that "G" in place of the "F" in "Fame" ... and it's available on Steam! WTF? They've got the game under review to see if it's against any of their policies.

All I have to say is ... F&#%king, really? The sound of this game makes Postal seem innocent by comparison. I have a pretty thick hide and support free speech, but can't understand this at all except that the developer must have some kind of severe mental disorder.

So my wife just emailed me in a lather about a game she found out about on Steam. I won't name it to avoid giving it a search history here, but the developer proudly claims his game is for the small percentage of sociopaths in the world, and lets players embark on a grotesque mission to torture and rape women, and engage in incest and necrophilia. The first word in the game's name drops the "G" from "Grape" and the last word puts that "G" in place of the "F" in "Fame" ... and it's available on Steam! WTF? They've got the game under review to see if it's against any of their policies.

All I have to say is ... F&#%king, really? The sound of this game makes Postal seem innocent by comparison. I have a pretty thick hide and support free speech, but can't understand this at all except that the developer must have some kind of severe mental disorder.

There are worlds out there where the sky is burning, where the sea's asleep and the rivers dream, people made of smoke and cities made of song. Somewhere there's danger, somewhere there's injustice and somewhere else the tea is getting cold. Come on, Ace, we've got work to do.
-- The Doctor

I don't think that's the one he's talking about, once you move his letters around. As Valve says, though, just because a game shows up on Steam doesn't mean that the game's on Steam. Valve doesn't pre-approve content. The content is added (or, more likely, just announced with a placeholder.) Then, if it objectionable and reported, they respond to it then. It's more useful to think of them as similar to YouTube in that regard. People can upload horrific stuff if they want to, and when they do, YouTube takes it right back down.

Whatever you do, don't mention Custard's (I've thought Custer was Custard since I was a child. I ain't changing now) Revenge to her. You might cause her head to explode. It'll destroy her childhood at a minimum.

I think I have like a half million games. And I like all but a few but I always play just a special few all the time. It's not that I don't like the other games but I don't like them as much as the few I play.
I have to rethink my way of purchasing games, only buy them if I think they'll be better than the ones I play all the time, not just "it looks good".